Epilogue: Lois Is Still Game

"Okay," Lois Lane said, cradling her pregnant stomach. "I'll play it your way. What's the game and what are the stakes? I don't imagine you can keep adding weeks when I'm this big..."

"Oh, but I can," the demon's eyes flashed. "I can easily make you overdue, without harm to you or the child...although after a certain point, surgical delivery is the only option. But no, I have something better in mind."

The demon waved her hands. Chips disappeared in a shower of black sparks, and then re-emerged, slightly different. A small black box with a coin slot appeared on the table to the reporter's left. In front of her, four stacks of ten chips marked with "septem." In front of Blaze, three stacks of ten chips rimmed with gold.

She nodded to the box.

"That is our banker. As before: win ten soulshards, and you win back one of the women's souls. All you have to do is place them in the bank box, and the woman is free." Blaze said.

"And these?" Lois picked up one of the chips in front of her.

"You are forty weeks pregnant with one child. One chip per week. As you lose those chips, your pregnancy will regress...but!" The scarlet succubus smiled. "For each ten chips you lose to me, I can choose to either bet them...or to 'cash them in' with our banker."

"What happens if you cash them in?" Lois asked, warily.

"You gain one fetus," the demon said grinning. "Still want to play?"

"Five card stud again?" the reporter asked, rubbing her swollen stomach absently.

The demon nodded.

"Then deal the cards."

Both human and demon anted up. Almost imperceptibly, Lois felt her stomach rise and shrink, the mass shifting gently.

Of course. With two weeks in the pot, I'm only equivalent to 38 weeks pregnant.

Pot: 2 weeks, 2 soul shards

Lois: (Q♠) Q♦

Blaze: (K♦) 8♥

The pregnant reporter glanced at her face-down card briefly. A high pair this early was a stroke of luck.

"Four on my queen," she said. The demon met the bet, her face carefully neutral as she flipped up the next cards.

Pot: 6 weeks, 6 soul shards

Lois: (Q♠) Q♦ 5♠

Blaze: (K♦) 8♥ 8♠

Her stomach shrank noticeably. There was no pain, no sign that the baby within was hurt. Just a visible reduction, and a noticeably smaller stomach. The reporter's breasts felt lighter as well, and she thought a stretch mark or two had disappeared. It was oddly disconcerting, the rapidity of the change, and Lois found herself rubbing her stomach unconsciously.

She tossed a month into the pot. Blaze smiled as she pushed eight forward.

"Raise four."

Silently, Lois met the bet. Her stomach shrank dramatically, the skin growing more taut. Twenty-six weeks was still in the third trimester, but only just. A part of Lois wondered what would happen if she won. Would all the weeks come back at once? Would she grow huge again?

Pot: 14 weeks, 14 soul shards

Lois: (Q♠) Q♦ 5♠ 5♦

Blaze: (K♦) 8♥ 8♠ J♦

Two pair! Lois thought, almost giddy with excitement. She pushed four chips into the pot, not wanting to jinx it...and Blaze, almost predictably, rapped back.

"Raise four," the demon said, pushing eight chips forward.

"I see your raise...and raise you four in return," Lois countered coolly.

Blaze stared at Lois levelly before she pushed the chips into the pot. It was a rich bet—almost all of the scarlet succubus's chips would be in the pot. With just four chips left.

"You want to rap me back?" Lois said. The demon hesitated...Lois had more chips to lose...but finally she did push the last four soul shards into the middle. The reporter did the same.

It was like sucking in her stomach. that was the way the muscles suddenly contract, air expelling from Lois Lane's lungs in a sudden, less-than-graceful maneuver. Her whole belly felt like it was turning in on itself, and when she looked down, there was only the barest beginning of a pooch that might one day be a pregnant stomach. Her breasts were back to their familiar size as well, the nipples once more pink and slender. Not many women were showing very much at ten weeks.

If I win this, Lois thought, I'll have won back all three souls. If I lose... She did the quick math. ...I'll be ten weeks pregnant with quadruplets.

Pot: 30 weeks, 30 soul shards

Lois: (Q♠) Q♦ 5♠ 5♦ 7♦

Blaze: (K♦) 8♥ 8♠ J♦ 8♦

The reporter's hopes crashed as she saw Blaze's final card hit the table. Three of a kind beat two pair...and that was just what Blaze was showing. Mechanically, she turned over her card, but it was pointless. Blaze did the same out of politeness. They both knew who had won. Again.

Scarlet fingers picked up a stack of Lois Lane's chips from the pot. The reporter sat frozen to her seat as one by one, Blaze fed them into the banker.

"...eight...nine...twins," the demon pronounced.

Lois felt nothing. She stared down at her stomach. So engrossed had she been with watching the chips go in, she hadn't checked to see if her tummy had gotten any bigger. It didn't look like much...but then, what did a woman with twins look like at ten weeks? Blaze was still counting.

"...eight...nine...triplets."

This time Lois was watching...and she saw her navel shift outwards a little, felt the added mass settle in her hips. A woman with triplets would be eating for four, after all...easy to put on a few pounds.

"...eight...nine...quadruplets."

The final chip hit the others with a clink, and Lois groaned as her stomach pushed outward, more noticeable this time. Four babies must have played havoc on her body. Her stomach poked out like she was much further along than ten weeks...a definite swell in her midsection, a soft curve that would only go bigger as the weeks go by.

"Well, that was fun," Blaze said as she gathered up the cards. Her pure white eyes met the reporter's own, and the demonic dickgirl let that Mona Lisa smile crack her poker face. "I do so enjoy playing with you, Lois. One card's difference, and you would have had me! Care to try your luck again?"